Illuminative ball device

ABSTRACT

An illuminative ball device includes a housing having a chamber formed in the housing for forming a resilient structure, the housing includes a number of illuminative powders engaged into the housing for generating a light out of the housing. The illuminative powders are engaged into an outer peripheral portion of the housing. The housing includes one or more recesses formed in the outer peripheral portion of the housing. The housing includes a number of illuminative powders engaged into the recess of the housing for generating a light out of the housing.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an illuminative ball device, and more particularly to a ball device including an illuminative structure or configuration for allowing the ball device to be illuminative and to be seen in the dark environment.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Typical ball devices, such as basket balls, foot balls, volley balls, tennis balls or baseballs, soccer balls, or the other decorative ball devices are normally made or manufactured with flexible or resilient materials, such as rubber materials, plastic materials, synthetic materials, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) materials, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials, or the other synthetic materials, and include a suitable or selected flexibility or resilience for allowing the ball device to be bounced and to be played by the users.

Normally, the ball device are covered or painted or applied with various color materials at least on the outer peripheral portion thereof for decorative purposes, or comprise at least an outer peripheral layer covered or painted or applied with various color materials. The color materials may only absorb the light, but may not generate, provide or emit the light after being shone by the sun or the like.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,528 to Koblick, U.S. Pat. No. 4,963,117 to Gualdoni, U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,359 to Thill, U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,458 to Redondo, U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,316 to Campbell, U.S. Pat. No. 7,179,181 to Ko, U.S. Pat. No. 8,663,040 to Kortegast, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,951,151 to Glowinski disclose several of the typical playing game balls and each include a suitable or selected flexibility or resilience for allowing the ball device to be bounced and to be played by the users, and each include one or more light emitting diodes (LED), light bulbs or the like disposed or engaged into the ball device for generating an illuminative light and the like.

However, the light emitting diodes (LEDs) or the light bulbs include a solid structure or configuration having no flexibility or resilience such that the light emitting diodes (LEDs) or the light bulbs will be easily and quickly damaged or broken after the balls are hit onto various objects.

The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional illuminative ball devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an illuminative ball device including an illuminative structure or configuration for allowing the ball device to be illuminative and to be seen in the dark environment.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided an illuminative ball device comprising a housing including a chamber formed in the housing for forming a resilient structure, the housing includes a number of illuminative powders engaged into the housing for generating or providing a light out of the housing and for generating an illuminative light without consuming electric energy, and arranged for allowing the light generated or reflected by the illuminative powders to be seen from or through the outer peripheral portion of the housing, and thus for allowing the housing of the illuminative ball device to be seen in the dark environment or the like.

The illuminative powders are engaged or mixed into an outer peripheral portion of the housing while forming or making or manufacturing or molding the housing. The housing includes at least one depression or recess formed in the outer peripheral portion of the housing, and the housing may further include a number of illuminative powders engaged into the depressions or recesses of the housing.

Further objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a careful reading of the detailed description provided hereinbelow, with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of an illuminative ball device in accordance with the present invention;

FIGS. 2, 3 are partial cross sectional views of the illuminative ball device, taken along lines 2-2 and 3-3 of FIG. 1 respectively;

FIG. 4 is another perspective view similar to FIG. 1, illustrating the operation of the illuminative ball device;

FIG. 5 is still further perspective view similar to FIGS. 1 and 4, illustrating the other arrangement of the illuminative ball device;

FIG. 6 is still further perspective view similar to FIGS. 1 and 4-5, illustrating the further arrangement of the illuminative ball device;

FIG. 7 is a plan schematic view illustrating the still further arrangement of the illuminative ball device; and

FIG. 8 is another plan schematic view similar to FIG. 7, illustrating the still further arrangement of the illuminative ball device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to the drawings, and initially to FIGS. 1-3, an illuminative ball device in accordance with the present invention comprises a substantially spherical or 3-dimensional ball member 10 including an outer housing 11, and a compartment or chamber 12 formed in the housing 11 for forming or defining a resilient and bouncy structure or configuration, and sized and shaped for being passed among a number of players. The ball member 10 is depicted in the form of a basketball (FIG. 1) having a spherical shape, and may also be formed in the other forms, such as the spherical foot balls 101 (FIG. 4), volley balls 102 (FIG. 5), baseballs or tennis balls 103 (FIG. 6), the ellipsoidal soccer balls or footballs (not illustrated), or the other decorative balls 104, 105 as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

The housing 11, or at least the outer peripheral layer or portion 13 of the housing 11 includes a number of illuminative particles or powders 14 disposed or engaged into the outer peripheral portion 13 of the housing 11, best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, and arranged for allowing the light 7 generated by the illuminative powders 14 to be seen from or through the outer peripheral portion 13 of the housing 11, and thus for allowing the housing 11 of the illuminative ball device to be seen in the dark environment. The housing 11 may further include one or more depressions or recesses 15 formed in the outer peripheral portion 13 of the housing 11 (FIGS. 1, 2), and the illuminative powders 14 and/or 16 may further be disposed or engaged into the recesses 15 at the outer peripheral portion 13 of the housing 11 (FIG. 2), and thus for allowing the light 7 generated by the illuminative powders 14, 16 to be seen from or through the outer peripheral portion 13 of the housing 11.

It is to be noted that the illuminative powders 14, 16 may absorb the light and may generate or reflect or emit the light 7. The illuminative powders 14 and 16 may include the same color, or may include different colors.

The illuminative ball device may also be made or manufactured with flexible or resilient materials, such as rubber materials, plastic materials, synthetic materials, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) materials, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials, or the other synthetic materials, and includes a suitable or selected flexibility or resilience for allowing the ball device to be bouncy and to be played by the users, and the illuminative powders 14 may be disposed or engaged or mixed into the materials before the housing 11 is formed or made or manufactured or molded with mold devices (not illustrated), or the like. The illuminative ball device may also be attached to the ceiling 80 (FIG. 7), or engaged in a frame 88 (FIG. 8), or may be disposed at the corridor, the passage, the porch, the veranda, the stair way, the escape pathway, or the like for generating or providing an illuminative light 7 to light the dark environment, without consuming electric energy.

Accordingly, the illuminative ball device in accordance with the present invention includes an illuminative structure or configuration for allowing the ball device to be illuminative and to be seen in the dark environment.

Although this invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been made by way of example only and that numerous changes in the detailed construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed. 

I claim:
 1. An illuminative ball device comprising a housing including a chamber formed in said housing for forming a resilient structure, characterized in that: said housing includes a plurality of illuminative powders engaged into said housing for providing a light out of said housing.
 2. The illuminative ball device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said illuminative powders are engaged into an outer peripheral portion of said housing.
 3. The illuminative ball device as claimed in claim 2, wherein said housing includes at least one recess formed in said outer peripheral portion of said housing.
 4. The illuminative ball device as claimed in claim 3, wherein said housing includes a plurality of illuminative powders engaged into said at least one recess of said housing. 